Many factors affect the safety and stability of towing a trailer attached to a tow vehicle. The associated tow equipment has factory ratings that assist a driver or user in determining if a specific towing set-up will handle the loads and towing requirements for that set-up. Setting up a trailer and knowing that loads are within the specifications can be difficult. Vehicles, hitches, ball mounts, Axles, and trailers all have ratings. It is difficult for a consumer to learn and understand all of the different specifications.
Tow equipment for one trailer may not have the correct ratings for a second trailer. The user or driver may attempt to haul the second trailer with the same set-up as the first trailer. This may create a potentially dangerous situation if the equipment is not rated to handle a larger load. The equipment may not perform properly and, in some cases, may fail entirely under the higher load.
The current methods of determining the proper tow equipment include knowing what the weight of the vehicle, the weight of the trailer along with the weight of all loads in the bed of the tow vehicle and loads on the trailer. In many cases, the user or driver may not know what these weights are. The ratings of each piece of tow equipment may also be unknown.
Without a method of determining the weights of the loads along with the ratings of each piece of towing equipment, it is difficult for the user or driver to confirm that each trailer set-up is safe. Therefore, a method is needed to determine whether the loads are within specifications for each trailer set-up and confirm that each piece of tow equipment within a specific set-up is within system ratings.